Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #313: Reyna shines, a dive into CCV, and roster talk

Episode Date: September 9, 2022

Greg and Belz work through the mid-week Champions League action in some detail, and talk about the forthcoming roster for the upcoming September friendlies. support Scuffed on Patreon, and get the Monday Reviews every week, the historic recaps, access to the Discord which will include participation in our live call-in shows, and a recent bonus episode with Bob Morocco: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the scuff podcast where we talk about U.S. soccer. Hey, everybody, I'm Adam Bells, and with me is Greg Velasquez. We've got a lot of midweek action to cover an immense national team roster coming out next week, so we will do our best. Greg, how are you doing? Bells, I'm doing all right. For anyone who doesn't know, I just got through a move, moved homes. And so it's been a whirlwind week, and I haven't been able to watch nearly as much soccer

as I wish I would have been watching. But I'm out the other side just in time. to get caught up and get prepared for this, I think a pretty massive roster release coming up probably middle of next week. Kind of a big deal. There's a World Cup coming. And first of all, congratulations on your move.

That's a big deal, and you're a hero for being here today. We should mention that, you know, we've gotten a few questions about what happened to the recaps of the U.S. women's national team games against Nigeria. We're going to try to wrap those up next week. and apologies that we haven't done it yet. Yeah, my apologies there. I didn't even have like a service,

like a service to stream them or watch them on. So I'm way behind on it. So I want to actually be able to dedicate a window to blow through the way we were playing in those games. Because those I feel like are useful friendlies as well for the women's team. Sam Goffey. Yeah, yeah, yep, there you go. No, I mean, I guess you haven't watched that,

but I'll be interested to hear your opinion on her performance. So we'll blow through the midweek action first. Let's start with the firing of Thomas Tuchel. Chelsea has hired Graham Potter from Brighton and Hove Albion to replace him. What does it mean for young Christian? Greg? It's like we said, what, two weeks ago, the last time we recorded, it's almost like a transfer for him, right? New manager, his teammates will stay the same.

But who knows, A, where he'll fall in the pecking order with the new manager, and B, how that manager will deploy the attacking pieces that is so crucial to how Christian Pulisic plays. I'm not someone who necessarily thinks Pulisic was getting hard done by by Thomas Tuchel, at least Poulosick in particular. I think all of the attackers were doing poorly by way of Thomas Tuchel.

So for all I know, Poolecic will still be a bench player. I don't think this means that finally a new manager's in, they'll see the light and Poulosick will start every game. But my hope is, and what I hope the upgrade is, is that if Poolsick does come in off the bench, he's entering the game into like a coherent fluid attacking side instead of what I think we've been seeing from Chelsea for the past,

however long we've been suffering through that, where there's just very little in the way of attack or, you know, solid attacking ideas. I don't care about their defense. I hope that Potter comes in and just throws caution to the wind and goes forward on the attacking side with all of his expensive pieces. But we'll see, right? Yeah. I guess we, so you're kind of saying humanity is hard done by by Thomas Tuchel, really, not just Christian Pulisic, free humanity. And humanity's been freed.

I mean, the guy's got a Champions League trophy on his mantle from his time at Chelsea. So he's, he was doing something right at some point. But it was never really enjoyable to watch. It was enjoyable to watch back at Dortmund, I thought, you know, the Obamian Pulisiv. In ballet. Yeah, those were the days. I think, well, you kind of said, it doesn't really matter what happens. There's so many games for Chelsea over the next two months. Pulisks is going to play anyway. And then, like, right in the midst of the free Pulisic frenzy last week, he goes and starts the game on the weekend.

You know, Pulisic started on the weekend. It didn't look particularly good, right? Didn't look, I mean, but again, that's, I don't even really care or at this point blame Pulisic. Again, I'm not giving just him a pass. All of those struggling Chelsea attackers get a reprieve. and now let's see what they do with it they all just transferred together to Brighton. Right. I mean, Brighton's been playing in a five, like a three five something or a five three something for the past.

I mean, recently at least. So there's definitely no guarantee there's going to be some kind of four three three that maximizes Pulisix, his abilities. Okay. Next thing is we had a triumphant return this week. Giovanni Raina made his first substantive appearance. for Dortmund since he was sidelined with hamstring issues last spring, and he was outstanding. He came on for Thorgan Hazard, who was injured early in the first half, so Raina ended up playing about 70 minutes, easily his biggest, you know, his biggest appearance, I guess since the international

window in March, or like maybe the first or second game after that. Yeah, I think that's right. And even those international windows, he only played a half at a time, right? So this was his first time playing both sides of half time in a soccer match. Right. I mean, it's a pretty big milestone. And he was, he was elegant, effortless, contributed to two goals and a three zero win. Let me just describe the two assists. I mean, you guys have all seen them, but it's kind of fun to describe him anyway. They're both of the quietly excellent variety. On the first one, he played a little one, two, with a charging Rafa Guerrero, but the touch he uses to receive the ball from Guerrero and open himself to the keeper is really nice.

And then the decision, once the keeper is nearly upon him, to kind of pull it back with his left foot for Guerrero to sweep it into an empty net, both wonderful to see. It seems like he's looking to be the provider these days. Oh, yeah, it's that classic, it's that classic reina unselfishness. We've talked about it since he was 15. Yeah. No, that's the past. I mean, for me, that is like the past. That's the soccer play that I appreciate almost more than any other, which is the,

the wherewithal, like the awareness, to be looking directly at the goalkeeper knowing that you can score right here, you know, the big play of soccer. And instead, know where all of the other pieces are to find that more subtle play to give yourself an even higher, to give your team, not yourself, to give your team an even higher chance of scoring. Really basic, the extra pass. But it's, it's just so elegant to see it play out. No matter who it's, I know this is against the Copenhagen, but this was a perfect setting situation for him, right, to come in, not that I wish ill on Torgon Hazard, but for him to come in in this scenario where he gets that like extended cameo

longer than maybe we were planning on against a kind of weaker team, but in a big situation. Like there's a lot at stake in every Champions League group stage match in the first four weeks of Champions League play. So love this for him and love to see him execute this way. Yeah, it's the kind of, you know, that past, you're saying you love that kind of soccer play. It's the kind of past that once it's executed, you're like, yeah, of course.

Like, duh, that's what you should have done. But the reality is, not everybody does that. You know, I don't know what the percentage percentages are when somebody is in that sort of specific situation, how often they try to shoot it through the keeper. But it's got to be more than like 25%. And anytime they do, if he takes that shot, I would be over here saying he's got a square there or cut it back there. And, you know, people would very reasonably say, yeah, but, you know, shooters are going to shoot there. You can't blame the guy for taking the shot there. And of course you can't.

And again, shooting there is still a, it's going to, you know, be a dangerous situation. But that maximizing that optimal scoring percentage is just so in my blood that that's what I need to see every time. And he gave it. And he gave it to you. And he did it again. I mean, it was a little different on the second assist, but it was a, um, It was somewhat similar. Just a lovely bit of combination play by Dortmund,

flowing soccer through Jude Bellingham. And Bellingham played it out wide to Raina. And Raina just calmly squared it back to Bellingham at the top of the box. And it was, I think, a sneaky, clever pass because there's a lot of defenders rushing at the goal mouth. They're not really paying attention to the guy who's just getting into the box

because there's a couple attackers deeper into the box. And he plays this kind of effortless, square ball right to Bellingham's feet. He sweeps it into the goal too. So he appears like Raina is looking for those killer passes. And he still didn't seem extremely energetic out there. You know, like he doesn't send the body language signals of somebody who is like a tryhard. But that's just how he is.

Yeah, he's the least frenetic player on the roster. We have some frenetic players on the national team roster. and Raina is so the opposite of that. And I think that's just, I mean, it could be a little bit that he's still getting back to full fitness, but I think it's mostly just who he is. But yeah, I love the second assist. It's a different subset of cutback where, you know, it's not like he was ever going to shoot from where he was. So it's just a matter of which ball he's going to put across.

And rather than just sort of hammer it through that corridor, very intentional, recognizing where all the pieces are and, you know, hitting the, the, the, exact spot that he wanted to play it to the right player in the right window. And then, you know, Belling him with all the technique in the world to guide at home. So, yeah, love to see Raina doing that. He'll literally, he'll actually, if he plays this weekend, he'll have a tougher opponent in Leipzig than Copenhagen.

I don't think I'm telling tales here. Maybe I'm underestimating Copenhagen badly. But, you know, there's a reason that we are super high on the Danish league, even if we are talking about the Danish champions. Right. This isn't IACs, right? I mean, there's levels to the non-Big Five leagues in Denmark's level a little bit lower. Right.

I don't think you're going too far out on a limb there. But before we get to some other stuff, including CCV and the Rangers getting Molliwopped in Amsterdam by the aforementioned IACs, I just want to say we're going to rev back. We're going to try to rev back up the public feed here, like the women's national team episode that we talked about. The Monday review, the next one with Vince and Waki will go on the public feed. And we've got an interview with Jimmy Conrad that Wachie and I are going to try to do on Tuesday. So there's a lot coming on the public feed of the podcast, which you are listening to this on right now. FYI.

I'm sure we're going to have that roster reaction. It's going to be heated. Rastor reaction as well. But on the Patreon, which you know I was going to get to, we just did an episode with Bob Morocco, where he makes the case against every U.S. striker in the hat. So you can get that if you join the Patreon. You also get every single Monday review every Monday. We're going to do a bunch of live call-in shows over the next couple of months,

including during the World Cup that will be available to patrons on the Discord. And then, of course, the historic recaps. I'm still working on editing that 2002 USA to Mexico Zero recap, which we spoke together for nearly two hours on that. You're going to, you have to release that one at 2 a.m. just to keep it in line with the 2002 World Cup. If you haven't listened to that Bob Morocco podcast yet,

make sure you do that. Get onto the Patreon and do that before the roster comes out because I feel like the hat could dissolve very quickly once we hear the names in that September roster. Yeah, like it all become a moot point. Yep. Well, we'll talk about that at the end of this episode a little bit. So CCV, so we talked, we have talked,

and other people have talked about how CCV, Cameron Carter Vickers, James Sands, and Malak Tillman, all are getting this incredible chance to play six Champions League group stage games before the World Cup, a real opportunity for them to make their case to be on that plane to Qatar.

So we got some data last week, this week, earlier this week. CCV and Celtic lost to Real Madrid, 3 to 0. And I don't know, do you want to... Let me just draw out there. Yeah, go ahead. Let me just draw out there.

quick for CCV. He's, for me, he's still in a different, like, he's in a different category than Malikin Sands. Because Malikin Sands, you know,

they're both brand new to sort of the top flight here. So, so this Champions League info is going to be most of the info, because the Scottish League just isn't that tough. CCVs put in, like, I don't know, I think he's got like 10,000 minutes in the championship.

So we, I mean, he's not like some novice that we just don't know anything about. He has delivered for a number of teams in the championship. So I don't know. That's a good point. I've been medium on CCV for a while because I do think that he's a guy who, again,

could set a very nice floor for the national team, you know, especially now that we've had some injury issues at centerback. And so for me, this is, he's the one that I'm keeping the closest eye on. I mean, we keep an eye on all these guys. But I'm really, like, very curious how CCV will do here and whether or not we're just going to go by Champions League data or if we're going to kind of use his whole body of work in his evaluation process.

Okay, good point. I mean, if you go back and look at all his championship stuff, it's kind of all the same, right? I mean, he's a reliable defender, maybe not incredibly elegant on the ball, but not bad. And then can be a bit rash at times. And we saw a little bit of this against Real Madrid, right? Is that fair?

Is that unfair? So I think that's fair. I think that's fair from what I would see when I would watch. You know, I was going through his championship tape every weekend. And there was almost nothing eye-catching about his passing, like when he was playing for Orn Mith. Like it was very, very basic.

He was in the middle of a back three. And almost all of his passes were directly one man over to either side to his other centerbacks. He almost never broke the lines. He was doing it more for Celtic last year. But again, that actually comes with a bigger caveat, even though Celtic are this much better team,

it comes with the caveat of, You know, that was happening against some Scottish league. I don't want to call them minnows because they're just regular Scottish league teams, but they're not quite very good. Yeah. I mean, they beat somebody 9 to 0 a couple weeks ago, which actually happened in the Premier League, too. I guess we mentioned that last week.

They also just dumped Rangers, so they can meet anybody. They can meet anybody bad. All right. Anyway, yes. But he was making some good passes. He would make some good passes against Rail Madrid. I mean, like, he was, I wouldn't, I don't know if they were lined. breaking passes, but they were fairly precise on the ground passes over a fair amount of distance

to players on the wing or maybe in the channel, right? Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah. One of them led to one of his weaker defensive moments, ironically. Well, okay, do you want me to start with the bad and talk about it? Or why don't you, you did some CCV research. Why don't you take us through that? So, you know, the first, one of the first big moments for Rail Madrid, actually,

came on a, on a, immediately following a good CCV pass. This is one where he's got, you know, Celtic were actually kind of camped out in Madrid's half and CCV has made his way up past midfield. He gets on the ball. It's a really nice pass, you know, 50-yard ball from like the right half space at midfield up around the edge to the like right winger in some space. Of course, the space closes quickly against Real Madrid. That guy loses the ball and then Madrid start coming back out at Celtic.

and this is where CCV, you talked about him about him being rash, you can get away with being rash if you like overdo it sometimes and he was in like rashness no man's land where as Madrid worked this ball out, he gets close to the guy who receives the ball, gets close to his back because that target man in the breakout doesn't get all the way to him. So the guy gets to make a little layoff and then spin out.

And if CZV's closer to him, even if he can't stop the layoff, he can just destroy the man to keep him from spinning off and advancing upfield. He doesn't. And so Madrid end up finding him again all alone by himself and he gets in on Joe Hart. This is Venetius, right? Venetius, Jr. Yeah.

Yeah. So he actually needed to like fully commit to getting in there and just blowing him up, taking a foul, taking a yellow, if that's what it meant. But just not letting him make the layoff and then use CCV's own momentum and inertia against him. CCV carries a lot of inertia, by the way. So. Yes. So for this particular case, he just looks a little bit naive.

And again, this is what you kind of expect to see when you see a player make this level of a leap in competition level, is they're going to get exploited a bit because they're not used to players playing this efficiently, right? They're not used to the Madrid efficiency. They don't see that. So it can take you by surprise a little bit. And this one just CCV probably learned a little bit of a lesson on this play. That was a huge chance. I mean, Joe Hart had to come flying out of his goal.

I think he slid and met Venetius Jr. at the, right, like at the edge of the box and cleared the ball that way. Yeah, the bang, bang nature of Real Madrid's goals in the second half, just the beauty of them is something to behold. So let's, so I don't know, it's a little hard to blame him CCV for the first goal, but he is involved. Celtic had committed numbers forward in the press. They were playing without fear against Real Madrid, which you got to tip your cap to him for. but Valveride there's a long ball played to Valverde

the Uruguayan and he's got I think the other centerback on his back and he back heels he just backheel volleys it to Ednazard Hazard chests it back to him and he races down the line

so CCV is kind of tracking Hazard but then he switches to track Valverde and Valverde just races down the line and plays a teasing ball all the way across when Elysius Jr. arrives unmarked and thumps it home.

I guess you could blame CCV somewhere in there, but it just seemed like Celtic were caught out as a team, basically by like three moments of pure quality. Three moments of pure quality and the off ball awareness on that weak side for Madrid because it doesn't necessarily look like that passes even on. CZV's got the situation handled on his side, right? That guy's not going towards goal with the ball. but he can just hit this.

I mean, that's probably like a 45-yard pass across the entire field to hit the weak side runner who, you know, you want to talk about pitch control. Celtic, again, probably felt like they were mostly okay here, but there is just that one trajectory behind everyone that can beat that last weakside defender and that's all at Madrid need.

I don't really have any issue with CCV here and I'm actually probably going to disagree with you on the second one. Why don't you break down the second? Yeah, because I do. I ding him a little more for the second one. He follows Ednazard to the center circle, you know, just tracking him, and then leaves his feet to challenge to a many

on a slightly loose touch in the middle of the center circle, ends up clattering dangerously into him. I mean, if it didn't result in a goal right afterward, there might have been some cards shown. So that's where the word rash comes to mind. Anyway, the ball squirts away to Hazard, with CCV still getting to his feet. He beats a guy and is in a first class,

you know, sort of attacking situation, basically a 4V3 for Real Madrid, before CCV is even back to his feet. And he actually looked a little hurt as he was getting to his feet. Hazard finds Madrich out to his right. Modrich beats two guys and then stings it with the outside of his boot off, heart's fingertips, and into the goal to zero.

So you don't blame CCV for the four end of the center circle here? Nope. I think for me it's the correct decision. It's even like the correct execution. And by that, I mean like I just kind of dinged him for not being quite rash enough on that earlier breakout. Here he was exactly as rash as he should have been. He wrecked the dude. Right. So he comes in with a tackle. I don't even know if he would be called for the foul here. He gets to the ball first because it's a really loose touch. So he meets the ball as the balls in between the two players. And then, who was it? Chuck. Chiuamani has another defender sort of on his hip from that loose touch

and that guy kind of nudges him from the back and that's why it's such an extreme clattering because he gets sort of pushed with his own momentum into CCV who's a massive fella so you have this huge collision and so they've completely knocked this guy out of the play and it's a little bit unlucky that the ball just ping pongs to Hazard.

So for me, CTV did the job of a centerback here. He came in, disrupted the play completely and wrecked the guy So it's not like he disrupted the play, but let the man run free. And then when the ball squirts through, you know, they're outnumbered. Yeah, he nearly decapitated his feet. So where you glossed over very quickly in the initial retelling of this story is that he, that hazard beat a guy to create this first class MVP. And that was the big mistake of the whole play for me.

Like this is CCV centerback partner who just does a really half, like halfway dips a toe in to Hazard and lets him skip past, not nearly rash enough, right? This is the naive one. If you're going to go in and you miss the ball and just let him go by, just destroy him. It's not a red card. You've got cover on either side. Like, this was the big mistake for Celtic here. And if he just

blows up Hazard here and takes the yellow, puts his hand up, apologizes, gets on with the next defense, then Celtic are fine. And it's we just look it as a good aggressive tackle from CCV. But instead, just sixes and seven,

for his centerback partner. Hatate also, go ahead. Well, if you really also want to get into the tape of who's at fault for this goal, so once this centerback blows this play, right, blows the challenge where he doesn't go in hard enough, he's sort of taken out of the play by Hazard,

and now Madrid are totally free running at goal. And the two trailing center mids for Celtic also aren't doing nearly enough. I agree. I was just going to say that, yeah. Yeah, CCVs on the floor. The other centerback just got rinsed. And they start with the urgency, but then as Modrich approach his goal, and you see this sometimes, they don't bank on the play being extended.

And so they just start sort of jogging like, all right, well, we'll see if Modrick scores or if it goes out of bounds or it gets safe. But they're not there for the continuation of the play. And Modrich delays once it gets to him and cuts it back to the inside. And the center mids had held up their run briefly, just slow down a little bit. And then when they realize Modrich is cutting back inside, then you see them accelerate again. And when he hits that ball with the outside of his right foot, that trailing center mid is like a foot and a half away from blocking it. Yeah, too late.

So if he's just, if he just keeps working hard the entire time, he's back to actually add more defense. But again, I don't know if that's just a competition issue where they're not used to the level of sophistication of a moderate. It's got to be what it is. It's got to be what it is.

It's like, oh, this guy did something else. And because I wasn't playing as efficiently as I could have, he exploited it for just that little bit. That's all it took. Yeah, it took me a second to figure it out. So I want to use the name. Hatate, one of the center mids, the one who was closest to the play, who was, who was

lineman jogging his way back when, when Madritch was receiving the ball the first time. It reminds me of, you know, I saw, we talked about this on the Discord, forgive me for bringing up the Discord everybody, Marcellino Nunez, the Norwich City midfielder, who's played, been playing really well this season for them. There's a clip from their most recent game, I think, where he, he's standing at the top of the, he's standing in Zone 14. in the attack and there's a I think it's Coventry going the other way on a counterattack and he he sprints all the way back early early Holland style all the way back into the box full speed totally like totally alert to everything that's going on and then at the very last second cuts out a very a very good

cross and sends it over the end line say basically a goal saving defensive play and I'm like I'm like man, if, you know, if some of our young midfielder's are doing that on tape, we know that they have, they have arrived. Yeah, it's huge, right? That's huge. So that's what it is. You got to do all that work, even if you aren't sure you're going to be needed. You can rest when the ball's in the goal.

You know what I mean? Do all that work. And if they score, then you can take your breath. Yeah, an uneasy rest is what it is. All right. The third goal involved nobody picking up Hazard as he arrived for Carval Hall's volleyball ball across. Again, CCV was closest to him by the time he was hitting it, but I don't know. It's a confusing play, and it is just a couple moments of incredible quality.

Tony Cruz with the great diagonal ball to Carvajal, and then he won time, and first time, volleys it back across for Hazard. It was confusing, I think, for both centerbacks because Greg Taylor, Celtics left back, had to leave Hazard to chase Carvahall, who was overla. out wide and CCV realized that Hazard was coming free before anybody else did but still a couple moments too late just bang bang. Real Madrid is good. Yeah, nothing, nothing whatsoever for CCV on this one. This was a play where you just saw again how Celtic were trying to be well drilled in like their block defending. Madrid had the ball up the left

side of the field, had it there for a while, played it back around to reset and Celtic just didn't put nearly enough pressure on them, but still had seven of their players out beyond, like from midfield to their defensive right side and just totally fell asleep. Their left back just didn't get the help he needed soon enough. Like Madrid had a 2V1 out there for almost the entire sequence. And as soon as that ball goes out to, I don't remember who the midfielder was, who hit the diagonal, you already said it probably. Chris, Chris.

Yeah. As soon as it goes back out to Cruz, like, you know that you're now outnumbered in a way that they can find. And so he needed to be pulling his left center back, the left center back, over with him. CCV's centerback partner needed to start moving out there to account for those players. There was no reason to be to stay so shifted out to their defensive right side, but they just didn't make that adjustment.

They kept the rest of their players tight together in what eventually became the weak side once that ball goes across. And then it's a one on nobody. And there was, I mean, there's no way CCV is going to be the guy who did it. I should say, I shouldn't say there's no way. We just talked about how important it is to do all of the work just in case. And CCB did that, right? he did all this work to get back, even though it's not like his responsibility, because if

Hazard doesn't take the cleanest touch, or if the service to him isn't totally clean, Ccv will be there to make a play. Unfortunately, it's Rail Madrid, so everything is very clean and no play for Ccv to make. Yeah, so clean. Well, they play Shachtard Donetsk, Celtic, do, on Wednesday. So another chance for us to see CCV. You're feeling pretty confident that he's going to be in this roster. Right?

Yeah, I think he's a lock. And I think he's good enough to be a lock. And I also think some of Burrhalter's comments strengthen that my personal belief that he's going to for sure be in this camp. Again, maybe it was just a throwaway line, but Berhalter essentially tiered out his centerbacks a few months back. And CCV was listed in sort of that first tier. So I think CCV's in. I think he's probably about as close as I'd be willing to say he's pretty much in the roster for Qatar at this point.

Okay. I'm good with it. Just to reiterate, I think, like, he's a handful, physically. He's, like, really committed in the tackle. Pretty good passing. We saw some pretty good passing against Real Madrid. I'll throw this out there, too. I know I just kind of touched on it with his attempt to get back to clear that last goal,

unfortunately not able to do it. But he is super dialed in on the weak side. Like one of the fun things to watch was during Madrid's buildups when they would get Celtic deep in that block, like watching his awareness. I mean, because you have to be, right? I mean, I'm sure that's what they prepared for all week was how alert he was, how much he was communicating with the players around him. And again, it was a contrast to what we saw on that last Madrid goal where his, the other side of the defensive line wasn't doing it. And that's how they got caught out. But CZV is like when he's the weak side centerback, he was constantly like checking.

lines, checking his shoulder, taking little adjustments to be, to control as much of the pitch as he could control. So that was another thing that I think is a very promising aspect of his play at the moment. There was a fun sequence, too, where he was marking Benzima, before Benzma came off injured, and Benzma was making a run down the middle of the field, and he's just, you know, what a fox in the box, Kareem Benzema is. and he's he's like benzima swerves this way and that way and this way and that way the whole time CCV is you know checking his shoulder and stand stand a step ahead of him

and then finally Benzima just kind of gives up and stops you know that's great there you go see Benzema shut down I mean we got to see if that qualifies for clamps can you get clamps I don't know zero three loss the clamps criteria is a little confusing to me but um rangers got stomped in Amsterdam by Iax. I mean, so did Celtic also got stomped. It just was a different kind of game, I think. I think Celtic were kept at zero-zero, and we're playing sort of toe-to-toe with Real Madrid throughout the first half.

Rangers were not playing toe-to-to-to-with Iax, and Sands and Tillman didn't rise above the performance of their team. So I guess, you know, CCV lots to be excited about there. Sands, I think less so after this game. It's just one game. but he was spectating behind Edson Alvarez when he rose for a free header on a set piece. I don't really understand what he's doing here, but he was, I think,

had to have been marking Alvarez there and doesn't even try to jump for it and Alvarez scores right in front of him. I don't know, do you disagree with my description of it there? No, I mean, that seems to be what was going on, right? It's so hard to pick out on set piece what guys' assignments are because they could have very specific assignments. Yeah. I mean, there could be something going on that we don't know, but it's sure the optics are not great for James.

And the second goal comes on a shot that's deflected off his foot. It happens, you know. Wrong foot's the keeper, but he, you know, he's just trying to get his foot on a shot to stop it. and he went off his foot into the goal. And then the third goal had nothing to do with James Sands. It was just kudos being outrageous and, you know, hitting a incredible left-footed shot on the break. But then the fourth goal was Sands playing one of his teammates into kind of a tough

spot trying to play out of the back. It was definitely a pass that did not have to result in a goal, but it created a little bit of a moment where a goal resulting is. like a big shock, I guess. And the pass that follows, Sands Pass is incredibly wayward. It goes straight to Stephen Bergwine, and he made it 4-0. So, you know, if Sands is going to be the alert, extremely reliable guy, I think, you know, he can't be losing Alvarez on a set piece.

And, you know, probably needs to play a little better than he did in this one. And is that harsh? Well, no, I don't. And I think he's got a, I think he's got like an uphill. climb to begin with because I don't put I think I've said this before I don't put as much stock in his versatility as other people do his ability to play the backup six

mainly because I think that shit for Burrhalter has already sailed like I think we are in in the territory of not running a six if Adams has hurt and Acosta's for some reason not available like we're just going to switch everything up

and not just be like all right well we'll just plug in another player and have them see what they do there it'll just be McKinney and Moussa in a double pivot most likely. Yeah, some variation of that. Well, you know, there'll be ups and downs on this roller coaster ride for Rangers, but they face Napoli on Tuesday. We should mention Malik Tillman.

He only got on the ball seven times in this game, all in the first 30 minutes. And nothing really, there was one time where he sort of dribbled into the Iax half and found somebody's feet outside of the box that resulted in some kind of shot. But after those first 30 minutes, he didn't even touch the ball. I mean, he had like one duel, I think, and you can't just disappear from a game like that.

And then he was subbed at the half. Yeah, I want to just say, like, you're not in Scotland anymore. But again, to be fair, Rangers did just beat the other Dutch team, you know, to get to this game. Yeah, and Tillman, you know, was good in there. game. Hey, I'm gonna I gotta do I gotta do a I got a back pedal on the Sands

corner kick concession. Okay. Like I don't think this is actually Sands watching it again. I had to watch it again. Sorry to everyone I had to watch it like in real time here. This is like they're zoned here and and this is totally on whoever number six is

for Rangers because that ball lands exactly where he is standing as the ball is kicked. And for whatever reason he just badly misjudges the trajectory and breaks hard towards the origin of the kick and one iX player and just leaves his spot totally empty and it's a free head for alvarez where if the guy literally just holds his ground the ball hits him in the head so sans a little bit yeah they're zoned here on the top of the six yard box

and number six just leaves his spot as soon as the ball's kick and the ball goes directly to where he was standing so i'm going to put this one take this one off of sands a little i mean maybe sands could have recognized that you know he's going to have to do some desks exploration stuff here and he doesn't quite do it. But no, he's not, this isn't his spot. He's, he's, he's a little bit off the hook here. Sounds a little bit legalistic to me. I mean, there's a, there's a guy running right in front of you, like two feet in front

of you, at least try to put him off a little bit. Yeah, that's what I'd say is he should have done more to clean up the other guy's vacated spot. But if I'm watching the film, I'm just looking at number six being like, hey, buddy, what are we, what are we running away from here? Just decided that. number six. Didn't want to make a play on this ball?

Let's keep, let's keep moving. Juventis lost 2-1 to Paris Saint-Germain. McKinney came on at the half with his side down to zero. Two really nice goals from Killian Mbapé. Juventus wasn't totally out of it. They brought on McKinney at the half. He scored a goal with his head, a towering header on a set piece.

Really dunked on a guy. Otherwise, didn't look particularly sharp. to me. Do you remember who took the set piece for Eventis? And do we have a comparable taker of set pieces on the U.S.? It was a short corner. Costich Custich was the one who hit the ball. We do not have a comparable set piece taker. Custage is kind of world class

at crossing the ball. As much as I want to say, like that's some foreshadowing for the U.S. for the World Cup. Like, surely we're going to get a Weston McKinney header. You can't say it until you see who's going to be taking our set pieces, right? Yeah. Well, it's pool of six set pieces are going to get a lot better because Tuchel's not his coach anymore. That's the hope. All right.

Well done, Weston McKinney. He's doing things in a Champions League game. We're happy about that. Absolutely. It doesn't look quite fully informed yet to me, but Allegory keeps playing him a lot, and he scored a goal. A.C. Milan tied Salisburg 1-1, and I guess the most important thing here is just that Sergenio Desk got his debut. It was a 38-minute cameo when Milan needed a goal. So it was 1-1 when he came on.

Didn't think he was super sharp either, but he looked okay. He's going to get a lot of usage from right back when he's on the field. And he put together a couple little decent combinations. He's out of the Barcelona freezer. That's all we care about. That's right. Literally all we care about. I'll just throw an aside in here, not to bog us down in another detour,

but incredible what Red Bull Salisburg do, right? Yeah. It's just ridiculous that they moved, they moved Erling Holland and continue, and then the next year made it out of the Champions League group stage. And then they move 70 million. I mean, they probably moved another 100 million in players this offseason. They're right back in the Champions League doing things. And drawing A.C. Milan was the Scudetto winner, right?

They won the serial last season. It was A.C. Milan. There we go. Yeah, we have to do a little fact check in. there. All right, we should mention, I think it's made this first time we've mentioned him on this podcast, Josh Cohen, the goalkeeper for Haifa Maccabee, conceded twice in a two-zero loss to Benfica, but you can't really blame him.

One was an unstoppable glancing touch on a good cross from the left. The other was a worldly from Grimaldo. Did you see this goal? No, I didn't. I missed Benfica's. I was waiting for the Brooks Alert that didn't come. No, there was no Brooks Alert. But, I mean, it was an incredible goal.

I've never seen a shot dip that much. It was like a rainbow moving at 70 miles an hour. Anyway, I mean. Does Cohen have a chance? No, he doesn't. But what he does have a chance to do is pad Jordan's spreadsheet for Americans playing in the Champions League. Yes, that's an important thing. Chandler didn't play for, go ahead.

Well, I was just saying, we need these kinds of stat padding because you got to make up for like the similar stat patterns from from eras by gone. Yeah, like Mix-Discard playing for Sondersky. Yeah, there you go. Chandler didn't play for Frankfurt. Like you said, no alert on Brooks for Benfica. He still hasn't made his debut there. Let's hope that he rotates in this weekend,

as Benfica maybe rotate some guys ahead of their next Champions League game. Have they not confined everyone in Europe to their home because of the death of the queen? No, it is interesting that the monarchy just came. came to a very sudden end. No more mona. Just roll over. Oh, and Otis, so he wasn't in the squad for Bruges and their win over Leverkusen,

which is putting the Leverkusen coach on the hot seat. So there's the midweek action. All right, we just blew through it. 40 minutes. Thanks for letting me get into the CCV details. Like, it felt good to get into some soccer tape again over the last. Yeah, it's fun. It's relaxing, isn't it?

Yeah, it's therapy. All right. So do you have any specific wishes for the roster that's coming out next week? No, not really. Like, I hope we have an actual left back in camp besides Jedi. And I don't even know if Jedi will be there because of his ankle injury. Have we gotten an update as of this recording? I do not believe so, no.

Yeah, so still waiting on any update. but if he is not, even if he is there, I hope there is at least one other sort of left back being tried out. So who are you thinking? I don't want Sergino Dess to be the backup left back in this camp. Is it Sam Bines then? I kind of, well, I would also accept Joe Scali as the backup left back. And that's going to be kind of the big consolation prize here, right?

If Jedi can't go, then at the very least we'll get 180 minutes of non-Jedi, left back experimentation. Right. Especially if Jedi can't go, I think you got to have fines there. Or, because he's a more like for like replacement than even Scali. But I also want Scali there.

I know there's some people who listen to this podcast who are really, you know, they go to the Lake Grove Book Club in Long Island, I'm sure. And they really want us to be, more friendly to Scali, me specifically. I hope I would actually like to see Scali start at left back if Jedi can't go. Thank you for saying that.

You've said this a lot of grief. The like for like bit, though, where I'm going to quibble with that is there just isn't one, right? You can say in the abstract, it'd be great to have a like for like for Jedi, but that's as far as it goes. It's very much there just is not another attacking left back that we have that's anywhere close to Jedi, it's pretty analogous to right back, in my opinion, where you just cannot replace Serginio Dest if he's out in what he brings and ask another guy to just go in and try to do what Death does. You have to ask them to do something else. And so if Jedi is not there, I do think we essentially have to ask our left backs to do something else. And I'm not sure what

that looks like. So I'm actually kind of curious, I think that will be part of the experimentation if Jedi can't go. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what else there is to say about it from my point of view. On the Jedi front. I could give some sort of half-baked opinions, but it's like... It's a new hat, right? Now the striker has dissolving.

We got to, it's basically the backup full-back hat, and they sort of all go in it. Yedlin, sure. Scali, absolutely. Cannon, get them in there. Where's Shackmore at? Yeah. I mean, and when it comes to Stryker,

I mean, even when it comes to striker, I don't feel like, I think Josh Sargent should be there. I think Jordan Pfeck, if Healthy, should be there. I think Jesus Ferreira should be there. Vasquez, Pepe? I don't know. Sure. Into camp, yeah. I mean, I don't really, I'm fine with big invites, but, like, I would be pretty, I don't know what the word would be.

I think I would be internet mad if sergeant's just not there. Yeah. would be internet mad if Sergeant wasn't there, but he's going to be there. And when it comes to like Vasquez and Pepe and Hajie Wright, I'm not going to be mad if any of them is there. I'm not going to be mad if any of them's not there. Oh yeah, totally. Yep, same page for that. So I think we've covered fullbacks and strikers.

Pfok is one to keep an eye on because of his injury situation. Missed the Europa game Thursday. Not totally assured that he'll play this weekend. And then the roster probably announced midweekish. So timetables tight for Pfock getting him into this camp. If assuming, that's assuming Burrhalter's calling him in, which he definitely should, but I'm not going to try to read Burrhalter's mind on the Pfeck front. Going back to fullbacks for a second, kind of whiplashy, I guess.

But the thing about it is, is, you know, Robinson Dest are definitely going to be there, if healthy. It sure feels like from from Burrhalter's perspective, Yedlin and Cannon are going to to be there. I mean, we can't read his mind on that either, but that's the indication from, like, call up so far, isn't it? I think that's fair. Call up so far, yeah. I'd say that's the indication, but yeah, he's just going to drop Canon at this point. Like, thanks for your service, not anymore. I think he should. I think he should, probably, but is he going to, I don't think he would drop him entirely from this camp.

In other words, I don't think he would just bring Yedlin and Scali and leave Cannon out, right? So I think if he's going to drop Cannon, it will be after this camp in the announcement for the actual World Cup itself, which I'm sure isn't any less harsh, but I feel like that would be the order would happen in. Brutal, but, you know, it's a meritocracy, kind of. Do we need to put a bow on the fullbacks? Like, who do you think should be called up? What's the group of fullbacks that you think should be called up?

So if we're assuming Jedi is healthy, then I want Jedi and Dest. I want Scali essentially as the third fullback for this camp, because I want to see him actually put in a good shift for the U.S. to feel a little bit better about him. And after those three, I do not care at all. If Scali's earmarked for left back, then it can be another two right backs. If Scali's not earmarked for left back, then I think we do need to bring another left back in,

whether that's vines, whether it's Tolkien. Seems like it won't be Jones because there's nothing Jones as Duon Jones has done lately. That would be like, oh, now we need to get him in. Whereas like with a Tolkien, he's given, I think, just because a sample was so small previously, he's just added to a sample of, all right, if this is the level he's playing at,

maybe he's worth a look. But no, I don't, after Jedi, Dest, and Scali, I don't feel strongly about which of the other guys are in this particular camp. Okay. So there you go. Well, as everyone knows, I like more. I like Shaq Moore.

So I feel I would prefer him over Yedlin and Cannon. I just don't see any way that Yedlin and Cannon aren't going to be there, you know, regardless of my preferences. Centerback. So Zimmerman's there. I think Long Richards, Zimmerman, and CZivv are all in. And again, that's partly on the comments. Burrhalter is made. I don't know that there's anyone who will be excluded that I'll feel strongly about

other than Timothy Jonathan Reem. Is his middle name really Jonathan? I don't know. It seems like that would be his middle name. He's the only one who I'm like, we got to test him back out because he's really playing a lot of good soccer against a lot of good soccer players. At a higher level than anybody else. Yeah, have to bring him in.

So I'm really hoping we see Tim Rerhauer. I'm for some reason not optimistic that it'll happen. But he's the one omission that I would like that I kind of expect. And that I'll be a little disappointed about. Not too bothered about whether McKenzie's there or EPP's there. I mean, we'll see if Brooks even plays for Benfica before the window. You don't need a, you don't need James Sands thrown on there for his positional versatility either, right? No.

Because you were saying you don't care about it's a versatility thing. No, his versatility just doesn't do much for me at the moment. even for 26th player roster construction purposes. My preference would be Zimmerman, Reem, Richards, and Carter Vickers, but I do acknowledge that, like Yedlin Long, will probably be in this camp. Defensive midfield is Adams and Acosta. I don't think there's really that much to say about it. Center mids, the 8th would be McKenny Musa and Luca Deloere.

I think Luca Delo Tore is still in, right? I mean, he hasn't played much. he'd have to be just because there's no indication that he's taken a step backward. He's, I mean, even just seeing spot minutes for, for Seltavigo is at worst a lateral move from playing for the relegated Heracles. So,

uh, I think, I don't think there's any reason to think for Haltor's estimation of DeLotori has dropped. Okay. Anyone else? Any other sediment is going to be there? Is Eric Williamson getting his call up? I feel like he's been,

uh, on and off again with injury for Portland and I don't know, he'd be like the safety net date to have in camp. And by that, I just mean to add another body for the center mids. Yeah, I mean, I guess the argument for him and maybe for bringing like a fourth or fifth striker or,

you know, like a sixth centerback, like a James Sands or somebody, would be just to get people acquainted with the systems in case there's some catastrophic injuries. and we just like have to call up somebody. But I don't know. Do national teams ever do that kind of thing?

I don't know. Well, yeah. I mean, we, I can't tell if you're doing a bit. I'm not doing a bit. I'm not doing a bit. Like, I mean, it seems to make sense to me to have a large camp here just to like, you basically, you guys are alternates. If somebody gets hurt, you got to be ready to come in for the World Cup.

Maybe you don't say it that bluntly to them, but, you know, uh, but I don't know if that's how it works. So even here, where you're talking about, it's like Williamson would be like bringing in a sixth centerback. The difference here is we don't even have backups for all of our eights, right? I mean, if you're talking McKinney-Musa-Dela-Torri, that's three guys

for two spots. So it's different than centerback. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead with the... Except our winger, two of our wingers, three of them if Malik Tillman is in this camp are can deputize as center mids. Yeah, they can and they can't.

You know, like they can if you change everything. They, for me, still can't if you're like, we're just going to roll the same, the same scheme that we're trying to roll. Whereas Williamson, I think you still can. Not quite as well as with Eunice Musa, but you're just like, okay, Musa out Williamson and everyone else do exactly what you've been doing. And now you're doing it next to Eric Williamson instead of Eunice Musa. For me still. All right, Greg, out with it. You want Alex Mendez in the camp. Yes, Alex Mendez is a like for like with Eunice Musa. For everyone else, and I know I feel like I'm lagging behind still with people who want Aronson Central or Raina Central or Tillman Central or to like, you know, float those, that versatility.

That's a wrinkle we have. But it's, again, it's not a, it is not like a plug and play wrinkle in my mind where you just throw Aronson into center mid. Everyone else plays the same and you're fine. Like I still think there are other adjustments you have to make there, whereas Williamson for me would be more like the Luca della Tori sub where you, okay, he's in. everything else stays the same we keep playing okay well why can't you why can't what other just what adjustments do you have to make if erinson comes in that are going that are so problematic uh i mean you is this a lie is this too long of a conversation you i think with when arson's in there you are shifting him higher up into the half space when you're in possession which means that you're

you have to adjust for that in the rest of your formations i don't think arison plays as a as a center mid in the actual central midfield line. I think he moves up into the attacking line in possession, regardless of what his named position is. Okay. All right. Well, the wingers, I mentioned three of them, but the wingers would be Pulisic,

Polisic, Aronson, Raina, Wea, maybe Tillman, maybe not. I don't know. Is he going to be in this roster? He should be in this camp, yeah. I'm not like sold that he's going to finally make the, 26, but he should be in this camp. He looked so good for Rangers,

not just in the games in Scotland, but in the Champions League qualification against Union Song Gilwas and then against, you know, PSV Einhoven. Didn't look good, didn't look good earlier this week, though. And then Paul Areola, I would bring Paul Areola. I like him.

I think he's good. I don't need Jordan Morris in this camp. With Wea being out injured, I feel like that opens a door to be to be sort of more inclusive with the back end of those half-space wingers, ass-based emergence. And you're not bloating the camp all that much. Okay. So you're good with Morris coming in? Yeah, sure. Bring him in.

But it seems like it's going to come. It could easily come down to Wayas and Raina's health at the time of the World Cup. And then this sort of race between Malick Tillman's experience level and like the familiarity that Berlter is built up with Morrison Ariola. Especially if we don't bring that fourth true center mitt and just roll with Acosta as the backup eight and then just three other real center mids. Yeah. All right. That's the roster, right? That's our, that's our pretty much September camp.

Our roster segments have gotten real raggedy, but it's all there. There's some discussion of all of it there. It's just kind of you've got to have to piece it together. Well, I think that's it. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.